Chapter 584: The Method of Shed-Style Underground Excavation

One hundred taels of silver in this day and age, even in a non-disaster year, could buy over twenty maidservants. Such is the terrifying purchasing power of one hundred taels of silver. Take the case of being swindled—that Li Niang swindled Song Rentong out of twenty-four taels, enough for him to fall for the same trick four times over.

Song Rentong also knew the value of one hundred taels of silver, yet he stubbornly delivered this sum to the Legal Affairs Office of the Government Factory to be turned over to the state. His reasoning was also quite interesting: "How joyful it is to find a hundred taels, and how anxious one must be to lose a hundred taels; therefore, I dare not misappropriate it."

How ecstatic one is to find one hundred taels, and how anxious the person who lost them must be—therefore, he dared not and could not misappropriate them.

Zhu Yijun initially thought Feng Bao had handled the matter poorly, revealing some obvious flaw. Upon closer questioning, he realized that was truly not the case. The entire process had no flaws to speak of; it was simply found by the roadside. Moreover, the silver was in various denominations, with only one thing missing: official government silver. It was all civilian silver ingots, along with quite a few silver scraps.

There were no obvious tracking marks. Even if Song Rentong had kept the silver, there wouldn't have been many clues to trace.

"I let him go to the brothels to indulge in debauchery; how did that matter turn out?" Zhu Yijun had not arranged for a plot where the owner sought the silver and Song Rentong was thrown into jail. This one hundred taels was just to give him a bit of confidence—the confidence to go into a brothel and play.

Not too much, not too little, just enough for him to recognize the true face of the women in the brothels.

The best cure for being a "simp" is to sleep with a few more women.

"That matter went quite smoothly!" When Feng Bao spoke of this, he was brimming with excitement. The first task had been botched, as he hadn't expected Song Rentong to truly be so honest, but for this second task, Feng Bao had handled it perfectly!

He had arranged everything for Song Rentong clearly and thoroughly.

"At first, Song Rentong bought one tael of silver's worth of wine. The girls in that house were truly full of charm, and with every 'my dear lover,' they had Song Rentong completely bewitched; his heart was almost melting. But once the wine was finished, he had to buy more, and Song Rentong felt a bit reluctant. After all, this silver didn't fall from the sky; it was earned bit by bit from mining in the pits."

"Song Rentong was reluctant to part with the silver and stopped buying wine, yet he lingered and refused to leave. This actually made the girl anxious. After several attempts to persuade him, Song Rentong still refused to buy wine and refused to leave, so the girl cursed him as a 'poor ghost.' Anyway... the cursing was quite nasty." Feng Bao did not repeat those vulgar insults from the streets in front of His Majesty; they were truly too foul.

"Tell me specifically." Zhu Yijun was actually curious about how she cursed him.

"If the Master knew, he would fear that I would be labeled a sycophant who whispers slander." Feng Bao waved his hands repeatedly. His Majesty might think that words like "ridden by thousands of men" or "spreading legs for money" were already nasty—after all, His Majesty was truly angry at the time—but in reality, those words were the truth, and they were far from the insults heard in the alleys.

"Forget it then." Zhu Yijun waved his hand. He could imagine how she cursed him; it was nothing more than insults about his parents suffering and other filthy, unbearable things.

"This Song Rentong was carried and thrown out of the house, and he finally understood completely what that Li Niang, whom he had been pining for, really was. Just this morning, news came that Song Rentong ran to the gate of the Western Hills Coal Bureau, kowtowed, and went to work." Feng Bao had kept someone watching Song Rentong. Song Rentong hadn't slept all night, tossing and turning, and kowtowing at the bureau gate in the morning could be considered an admission of his mistake.

Feng Bao smiled and said, "He hadn't slept all night and couldn't work, so he was caught by the clerks from the Legal Affairs Office who check the rattan hats, and they told him to go back and sleep, and come to work tomorrow."

The Legal Affairs Office that checks rattan hats is in charge of safety production in the Government Factory. Wang Qian had been caught by the people from the Legal Affairs Office once.

Most of the clerks in the Legal Affairs Office were elite soldiers from the Capital Battalion or resettled guest troops. Their way of doing things was that rules were paramount. Seeing Song Rentong's listless appearance, the Legal Affairs Office thought he had spent the night with a girl and forbade him from going down into the pit.

"Let's go, it's time for court. Bring my 'dry duck' over." After hearing the result, Zhu Yijun, beaming with joy, pedaled his "dry duck" along the small railway, pedaling all the way behind the Wenhua Hall, where he braked steadily.

"Your Majesty, it's called a 'Cunwu Vehicle'! Not a 'dry duck'!" Feng Bao said quite stubbornly. "Cunwu" refers to the Golden Crow, the sun-god bird. "Cunwu" was the name Feng Bao had given it.

"Isn't it still a dry duck?" Zhu Yijun happily took off his rattan hat, hung it on the vehicle, and went to court.

While Zhu Yijun was caught up in his daily busyness, Song Rentong still couldn't sleep. The miners' communal bunk was naturally not pleasant-smelling, but it was kept very clean; the clerks from the Legal Affairs Office inspected it too thoroughly.

In the fourth year of Wanli, a plague broke out in the Government Factory, rising and falling, keeping Wang Chonggu in a state of exhaustion. Finally, he had to invite a Great Physician to take a look.

Upon seeing the environment of the miners' dormitory, the Great Physician immediately said it was all because of poor hygiene; how could there not be a plague?

"Hygiene and Simple Prescriptions" was not the first medical book to discuss hygiene; in fact, medical texts throughout history had discussions about it.

In a communal bunk for sixteen miners, clothes piled up and fermented, and washing utensils were not cleaned and were even shared—it would be strange if they didn't get sick!

Zhang Juzheng said that to correct a wrong, one must go to the extreme. Wang Chonggu didn't know much about hygiene, so he invited Commander Yu Dayou from the Martial Arts Academy. After all, maintaining hygiene in the army was an important part of a military campaign; encountering a major plague would lead to defeat without a fight.

For example, when Sun Quan attacked Hefei, he didn't handle hygiene well, resulting in a major plague, and he was trampled into the ground by Zhang Liao's eight hundred men to earn military merit. Since then, Sun Quan, "Sun One Hundred Thousand," had been mocked for a thousand years.

Yu Dayou was not familiar with the Government Factory either, so he could only take out "New Book on Military Efficiency" and "Records of Military Training" for Wang Chonggu. After all, Qi Jiguang was more professional in military training, and Qi Jiguang had written about how to train troops in great detail.

To correct a wrong, one must go to the extreme. Suddenly, the miners' hygiene improved, but it was a bit too good.

Song Rentong hugged his quilt, covered his head, and with no one around, he began to cry. He cried more and more painfully. This matter was like drinking water—only the person drinking knows if it's cold or warm. Only Song Rentong knew how great the stormy waves in his heart were.

Yesterday in the brothel, he seemed to see Li Niang again. That girl who persuaded him to buy wine—every look and smile was exactly like Li Niang's. Those cups of wine felt like he had returned to the beginning, and he was immersed in it, unable to extricate himself. But after he stopped buying wine, that girl's mockery and cursing were also exactly like Li Niang's.

Song Rentong finally remembered the disdain and sarcasm in Li Niang's eyes when she cursed him as a "poor ghost."

The person one likes might just be the image one has fabricated oneself. This is also a process of self-deception and self-alienation. The "white moonlight" in one's heart is not what that person is really like.

Song Rentong cried, and crying, he finally fell asleep. A secret agent from the Northern Town Fushi, hearing that there was no movement inside, thought something had happened and gently pushed the door open to enter. He took his pulse slightly and saw he was asleep. He waited for a quarter of an hour before leaving, relieved.

In the Wenhua Hall, Zhu Yijun flipped through Wang Chonggu's memorial, slapped the table, and said, "I do not approve! Vice Minister Wang, you are actually asking for merit for this Song Rentong?! How much trouble has he caused you? He threw a tantrum, and it even reached me. Yesterday was a day of great joy for the dividend distribution, and he ran to file an imperial complaint against you. It was fine that you pleaded for him yesterday, but now you are asking for merit for him?"

"Not approved."

"Your Majesty, one cannot abandon a matter because of a person," Wang Chonggu said tentatively. "Your Majesty, why not take a look at the memorial?"

Zhu Yijun got a headache as soon as he saw the name Song Rentong. As a result, his good mood from disciplining Song Rentong early in the morning had all been ruined by Wang Chonggu. It was fine that Wang Chonggu, as the aggrieved party, didn't care for the sake of his reputation, but for Wang Chonggu to ask for merit for him was being overly generous.

"Let me see what this is all about." Only then did Zhu Yijun seriously look at the memorial.

"Hmm, he reads well, his arithmetic is also quite good, he came out of the Craftsman Academy, he is usually very ingenious, improving equipment, hmm?" Zhu Yijun frowned and said blankly, "What is meant by 'inspired by shipworms, using wood and steel as bones, rotating and cutting to excavate'?"

"It means he was inspired by shipworms. After shipworms drill into wood, they never come out for the rest of their lives unless they bore the wood completely empty. This Song Rentong, apart from being muddled in matters of love, has many ingenious ideas." Wang Chonggu took a painting out of his sleeve.

Shipworms are ship maggots. While this creature is ugly, it also causes irreparable damage to ships, making it the mortal enemy of the shipbuilding industry.

The head of the ship maggot has a serrated hard shell that can drill through hardwood. Wood also expands with heat and contracts with cold. Ship maggots destroy the tung oil and paint on the surface of the wood, causing the wood to become damp. In these two cases, the holes dug by the ship maggots will be flattened by this expansion.

But ship maggots secrete a kind of mucus that hardens and is very tough, leaving a passage. In this way, they won't be crushed to death by the wood becoming damp or expanding due to heat.

This has similarities to underground coal mining. Underground coal mining can lead to groundwater leakage, causing collapses, and Song Rentong came up with an invention.

Thirty-six working units, upper and lower layers, are constructed of hardwood or steel. In each working unit, there is a craftsman digging coal. On the working face, there is a wooden board covering it to prevent the working face from collapsing. Removing the wooden board to chisel in, and covering it with a wooden board to prevent collapse—this corresponds to the serrated hard shell of the ship maggot.

After mining the coal, it corresponds to the fixation of the mucus part, using stones, wooden bones, iron bones, etc., in key parts, pouring lime and cement to harden, preventing collapses.

The overall frame moves forward, also using hydraulic jacks. After all working faces in front are excavated, thirty-six craftsmen get off the vehicle and use hydraulic jacks to support the whole thing, pushing it forward, completing the advance.

Zhu Yijun finally understood: Song Rentong had tinkered with the manual shield tunneling method!

It is the same principle as the shield tunneling machines of later generations. A shield tunneling machine is an industrial monster of the electrical age, but the shield tunneling method is a way of underground operation that ensures both efficiency and safety.

"Your Majesty, it's not just for coal mining. There is a tunnel four miles long at Juyong Pass. In the process of building the imperial road, we inevitably encounter situations where we need to build tunnels, so we need this shed-style underground excavation method." Wang Chonggu named this method "shed-style underground excavation."

Wang Chonggu said with a complex expression, "Your Majesty, I have never considered myself an old stubborn. I don't think the emergence of the shed-style underground excavation method is heretical, a provocation, or something that should be burned to the ground. His stupidity in matters of love is because he has had little contact, after all, he is only seventeen, but he is indeed worthy of merit. He represents a kind of... newborn force."

"To what extent can a craftsman who has read books achieve? I really cannot imagine. I am too old."

People always divide new inventions and creations into three types: inventions that existed before they were born are taken for granted and are nothing special; before the age of thirty, those incredible and creative things are worth investing in and fighting for; new things that appear after the age of thirty-five are monsters that make the world collapse.

Wang Chonggu was old, but he was not that kind of old stubborn. Instead, he actively looked at these inventions being applied. He couldn't make inventions himself, but he couldn't become an obstacle to such inventions either. He, Wang Chonggu, was the leader of the Industrial Party, not a "cheap Confucian."

Song Rentong was a representative of the new generation, or the most typical representative among craftsmen who had read books. The Craftsman Academy focused on industrial studies, that is, arithmetic, basic mechanical principles, levers, inclined planes, pulleys, spirals, and now hydraulic pressure, etc. It didn't focus on the Four Books and Five Classics. It was helpless, mainly because it was hard to find good teachers for the Four Books and Five Classics.

"Your Majesty, the children who were running around barefoot in the Craftsman Academy have grown up." Wang Chonggu said with great emotion, "They are like the rising morning sun."

The Western Hills Coal Bureau and the Government Factory's group construction method went from nothing to something. Now that these children have grown up, it is time for them to shine. The light they burst out is very dazzling, and of course, there is also some stupidity of being inexperienced in the world.

This is not a big problem. On the road of growth, stumbling and falling a few times, they will slowly understand.

"Your Majesty, public is public, private is private." Zhang Juzheng knew Wang Chonggu's fun well.

A commoner suing an official, and it was a "white-eyed wolf" raised by Wang Chonggu himself, biting him back—how could Zhang Juzheng not watch such a big show? However, the changes brought to production by these craftsmen who had read books caught Zhang Juzheng's attention.

"You make it seem like I can't distinguish between public and private, and that rewards and punishments are unclear!" Zhu Yijun said with slight helplessness, "Fine, since Vice Minister Wang has asked for merit for him, then approve it. However, this method he tinkered with is indeed very promising."

Many inventions and creations are to solve practical problems. The Great Ming is now encountering some difficulties in underground operations, coal mining, and tunnel digging. Encountering mountains that cannot be bypassed and are difficult to climb over, tunnels are the only solution.

And this group of craftsmen who have read books, Song Rentong's group, always have more ideas than the old craftsmen.

"I was wondering yesterday why Vice Minister Wang let him off. It turns out he is a person of such great use." Zhu Yijun thought Wang Chonggu's temper had improved.

Wang Chonggu's vindictiveness was exactly the same as Zhang Juzheng's, and his methods were even dirtier. When the "cheap Confucians" impeached Wang Chonggu, Wang Chonggu set a trap to trick the censors into kowtowing at the Meridian Gate. When the Ming Emperor rushed outside the Meridian Gate, they were persuaded away by Hence Hai Rui. The materials for "Romantic Affairs of the Pure Stream Famous Confucians" were all provided by Wang Chonggu's son, Wang Qian.

These big figures showed convergence in being vindictive. In fact, it was normal. If you are kind, you will be bullied. In the biggest vanity fair of the officialdom, if you don't fight back when hit or cursed, you will never think about advancement. If you can't advance, it's equal to death.

Wang Chonggu was a bit troubled by Song Rentong. That Wang Chonggu was so generous to let him off had its reasons. Song Rentong was worthy of Wang Chonggu's favor.

"However, he should be over the matters of love now." Zhu Yijun briefly recounted how he had concocted Song Rentong and shared his happiness.

Visiting a brothel twice, he wouldn't suffer the bitterness of love anymore.

A happiness, shared with others, becomes two happinesses. The courtiers could only smile at the Emperor's strange ideas.

"Your Majesty, I have a remonstrance. Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, looked up to by hundreds of millions. How can you take pleasure in making things difficult for the common people? A gentleman should learn to love others. I think this is not good, and it is not something a gentleman should do." Hence Hai Rui, hearing that His Majesty was so mischievous, immediately stood up and bowed his head.

The Emperor sending someone to a brothel to visit a whorehouse—what kind of thing is that?

Zhu Yijun immediately knew why the Daoist Master and the late Emperor both hated Hence Hai Rui.

Nagging. As the supreme Son of Heaven, having someone nagging in his ear every day—this is not right, that is not right—the Emperor would naturally be annoyed.

"Chief Censor Hai, what you said—what do you say we should do? How about this, how about exiling Song Rentong to Java? After all, he filed a false accusation." Wan Shihe asked unhurriedly.

"It should be admonished," Hence Hai Rui said with a complex expression.

Wan Shihe immediately smiled and said, "Chief Censor Hai, there is a saying that saying ten thousand sentences is not as good as experiencing one thing. You say one thousand or ten thousand—can you make sense of it? Are there no friends who grew up with Song Rentong to persuade him? Not to mention friends, when he sued the official, did Shen Yiguan and Wang Xiyuan not persuade him? Was it useful?"

"Not to mention the distant ones, Chief Censor Hai is in the Censorate. Are the censors in the Censorate useful when persuaded? One person fetching water caused a storm in the city, running to the Western Hills Coal Bureau to do some work, and there were complaints everywhere, saying the food was not good, the sleep was not good, the living was not good. Working for two days a month, it's better to call it a spring outing than working, and yet they complained endlessly."

"That is also true." Hence Hai Rui fell silent. If persuasion were useful, there would be no "cheap Confucians" in the Great Ming.

The best growth is experience. If one is filled with beautiful fantasies about love, then breaking those fantasies is enough.

The Emperor arranging for someone to take Song Rentong to visit a brothel—this indeed looks unreliable, but Hence Hai Rui couldn't think of a better way.

"It's not right, but it's not wrong either." Hence Hai Rui pondered for a moment, and finally, helplessly, admitted that this method, which was not a method, was also a method.

Like when Hence Hai Rui evaluated Zhang Cheng and Zhang Jin, dividing the foreign ships—it's not right, but it's not wrong.

The court needs moral models like Hence Hai Rui to become a model in the court and a sharp blade to kill corrupt officials. It also needs "all-rounders" like Wan Shihe to play a lubricating role. Both have irreplaceable roles.

"Your Majesty, should we rewrite the History of Yuan?" Shen Li, as the Minister of Rites, made a proposal: rewrite the History of Yuan.

Looking at the history of the Central Plains for thousands of years, the most roughly written history is not the "History of Ming" written by the Tatars. The History of Ming was written very carefully, mainly because of the political needs of the Tatars. Many things could not be said, so they had to be written carefully, which can be said to be deeply carved.

The most careless history is not the "Book of Jin," which is called the magic catalog. Although the Book of Jin is filled with all kinds of magic, it generally follows the historical context. The reason it is magical is that the war caused the loss of historical materials to be too serious, so it is full of bizarre stories.

Fang Xuanling really tried his best to write the "Book of Jin."

The History of Song, Liao, and Jin was written in three years by the Yuan Dynasty Prime Minister Tuotuo. Isn't the most roughly written history the History of Song, Liao, and Jin?

It's really not.

In fact, the History of Song, Liao, and Jin had been written intermittently since the era of Kublai Khan. It had been written for nearly a hundred years, but because it was unclear who was the legitimate ruler, it was not completed for a long time.

If Song was the legitimate ruler, then the Northern Song and Liao were brothers at one time and father and son at another. Which one should be the main one?

And those who advocated that the Jin Dynasty was the legitimate ruler believed that the Southern Song Emperor Zhao Gou had once bowed to the Jin Dynasty. After all, the three words "Minister Gou says" were written by Zhao Gou himself in the national letter.

But if Song was not the legitimate ruler, then he was the Emperor of the Central Plains. Isn't this slapping Kublai Khan in the face?

When Kublai Khan went to the grassland to fight with Ariq Böke, he was fighting under the banner of the Emperor of the Central Plains.

In the less than one hundred years of the Hu Yuan dynasty, this matter was argued back and forth over a hundred times without result; there always had to be a choice between orthodoxy and a regime in exile.

Finally, the world was in turmoil. The Yuan Dynasty Prime Minister Tuotuo gathered all those historical materials together. Each family was legitimate. It was considered finished. Although the compilation time was only three years, the historical materials were still very complete. Although there were conflicting places, they generally matched.

The most roughly written history is the History of Yuan.

From the time Song Lian and Wang Wei received the imperial decree to write history, it took 331 days to write history. The compilation started, including Song Lian, the president, a total of sixteen people, finished and handed over, so sloppy that they didn't even proofread. Although the Hu Yuan Dynasty was less than a hundred years old, it was written in less than a year, which was really too sloppy.

Writing a volume in two or three days—Wan Shihe wouldn't fool the Emperor like this when writing "Records of Overseas Foreign Countries."

How sloppy was it? Ming Chengzu Zhu Di had a whim to look at the History of Yuan. After reading it for a long time, it was almost like a donkey's lips facing a sheep's mouth, bizarre, so he had to order Xie Jin to rewrite it.

Xie Jin received the errand and took a few people to start doing this. Successively, he wrote "Corrections to the History of Yuan," "Additions to the History of Yuan," and "Explanations of the History of Yuan." After writing it, Zhu Di was too lazy to read it, so he stuffed it into the Yongle Dadian.

After that, no one ever proposed the matter of rewriting the History of Yuan. It can be seen that from the beginning of the establishment of the Great Ming, recognizing the legitimate status of the Hu Yuan was recognizing it by pinching the nose. Recognizing it was recognizing it, but when fighting, they were not merciful at all.

"Rewriting the History of Yuan, I mainly want to write the 'Great Yuan Unification Records,' which is the territory of the Hu Yuan. According to the legal inheritance, the current Mughal Empire should be the territory of the Great Ming." Shen Li explained why he brought up the old matter again. Since it was recognized, he had to inherit something.

In short, Shen Li's purpose was: the territory of the Yuan Dynasty was not generally large.

"No, this... the Mughal Empire should be the territory of the Great Ming. Is this statement a bit illogical?" Zhu Yijun reached out and interrupted Shen Li's words.

Shen Li wanted to write the Great Yuan Unification Records for the sake of expanding the territory on the map. Zhu Yijun could understand this, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the entire Mughal Empire should be the Great Ming's. Was this opening too big?

According to this method of expanding the territory of the Ministry of Rites, Moscow should be drawn into the territory of the Great Ming, Constantinople should also be drawn into the territory of the Great Ming, and even Hormuz should be drawn into the territory of the Great Ming. Perhaps after further examination, Spain and Portugal should also be drawn into the territory of the Great Ming.

After all, Portugal and Spain were indeed actually occupied by the Arabs at that time, and the main country of the Arabs was a vassal state of the Ilkhanate.

"This map should be changed." Shen Li looked at the map in the Wenhua Hall and said with some dissatisfaction.

The Ministry of Rites was under great pressure. Philip II came to the Great Ming under the name of the Empire on which the sun never sets. Every time the Ministry of Rites saw the three words "sun never sets," they gnashed their teeth. This was a huge challenge to the rites and laws.

"Then rewrite the 'Great Yuan Unification Records,' but keep restraint. Greed for too much will not be digested." Zhu Yijun was silent for a moment and looked at Qi Jiguang. Qi Jiguang also looked at the Emperor with complex eyes. The two of them looked at each other, and it meant one thing.

Playing with thoughts, who can play with this group of scholars?!

Writing a book has so many thoughts. Shen Li doesn't say it clearly. Who knows what Shen Li wants to do?

Zhu Yijun has been busy for more than ten years, and he has only implemented the county system in the actual land. The overseas governor's office is also in the form of a enfeoffment system. According to the map of the Ministry of Rites, he has been busy for a lifetime, and he cannot implement the county system in such a large territory.

"I obey the decree." Shen Li looked at the map and decided that when he revised the "Complete Map of Mountains and Seas" next time, he must add Portugal. Anyway, the King of Portugal is also a vassal king who wears five-chapter robes, which is very reasonable.

Philip was not intentional. The reason why he mentioned that he was the King of the Empire on which the sun never sets in every national letter was actually to attract the attention of the Great Ming. After all, the arrogance of the Great Ming Heavenly Dynasty was also deep-rooted. If he didn't mention his achievements, the Great Ming would probably treat Philip II as a small country.

"Your Majesty, there is one thing." Minister of Works Wang Daokun said in a low voice, "The late Emperor's mausoleum needs to be repaired again."

"Uh, repair it. Use the inner treasury. How much is the expenditure?" Zhu Yijun agreed to the request of the Ministry of Works.

"At least 30,000 silver, at most 50,000 silver. The Ling'en Gate, Ling'en Hall, walls, Ming Tower, and other places are seriously sinking and must be repaired." Wang Daokun briefly introduced the situation.

Zhu Yijun thought about it and said, "Why not tear it down and rebuild it? Repairing it like this is not a thing. The late Emperor's mausoleum was repaired in the third year of Wanli, and it has to be repaired again."

"Your Majesty, this time it's no different from tearing it down and rebuilding it." Wang Daokun briefly introduced the situation of the project. The collapsed places must be torn down. This time, it was replaced with a steel-concrete structure, which could not be burned down.

Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Fine, let's do it."

The imperial mausoleum of the Longqing Emperor was very, very shabby.

In the eighteenth year of Jiajing, the Daoist Master originally intended to move his parents' graves to the capital for burial and issued an imperial decree to build the Xuan Palace. Later, he felt that his parents had been buried in peace, so after the Xuan Palace was built, it was not used, but the County Magistrate Mausoleum was built in Hubei.

In the sixth year of Longqing, the Longqing Emperor passed away, so the Xuan Palace that the Daoist Master had built and not used was directly used. Otherwise, an imperial mausoleum could not be done with 500,000 taels of silver.

Using the old one was fine, but there was not much silver to repair it, so it had been repaired all the time.

It had to be repaired. After all, after Empress Chen and Empress Li passed away, they were to be buried with the late Emperor. The late Emperor had indeed passed away, but these two Empresses were still there, so it had to be repaired.

After all, the country still rules the world with filial piety. ===== CHAPTER 585 =====