Chapter 196: The Dragon Boat Sank Again!

After entering Taiping Prefecture, Zhu Cilang could see from afar that land reclamation and canal digging had already begun everywhere, and tall Lanzhou water wheels were being built one after another.

Taiping Prefecture and Luzhou Prefecture were completely replicating the Fengyang Prefecture operation—digging canals extensively, erecting water wheels, and using the surrounding rivers and lakes to irrigate the fields.

Taiping Prefecture was close to the Yangtze River, with flat terrain and a fairly rich water network. Huizhou Prefecture to the south was different—surrounded by mountains and lacking water sources. Zhu Cilang had recently been considering how to handle reclamation and irrigation in Huizhou Prefecture.

Three months ago, the road leading to the General Armory had been an old official highway full of potholes, rising and falling and very difficult to traverse. Now it was flat and hard, and the dragon carriage felt barely any jostling as it rode along.

Zhu Cilang parted the curtain and looked around. Everywhere was bustling—men and women in summer clothing were about, some pushing coal carts, others pushing finished weapon and armor components, each person busy at work, while fully armed soldiers stood guard and supervised nearby.

Upon hearing that the Crown Prince had arrived, Wu Zhong and Zhou Yuji hurried over. The moment they met him, they asked urgently, "Your Highness, are you alright?"

Zhu Cilang waved his hand and said, "Just some treacherous villains causing trouble. This Prince is unharmed!"

Despite his words, Wu Zhong and Zhou Yuji remained deeply worried, and at the same time gnashed their teeth with hatred, wishing they could skin alive the wicked ones who had plotted against the Crown Prince.

After several months apart, Wu Zhong—who had originally been fair-skinned and somewhat plump—was now dark and thin, clearly having endured no small amount of hardship.

Zhu Cilang sighed and said, "Companion Wu, you've lost so much weight. You've worked hard!"

Receiving the Crown Prince's concern, Wu Zhong felt delighted inside and quickly said, "With those words from Your Highness, this servant would gladly lose another ten catties!"

Wu Zhong continued, "Your Highness, the ironworks and the Armory Bureau have already gotten on track. Let this servant show you around."

Zhu Cilang nodded and entered the Armory Bureau to take a look.

Most of the craftsmen from the Armory Bureau worked at the General Armory, while some had been transferred to the Fengyang Armory Bureau. Each family had been allotted one hundred mu of fertile land, and every month, in addition to their salaries, they received five dan of grain. Every household lived in prosperity.

Zhu Cilang had also abolished their hereditary artisan household status, allowing their descendants to freely choose their occupations, no longer restricted to inheriting their fathers' trade as artisans.

Zhu Cilang felt that military households, artisan households, and all other hereditary household categories had to be abolished. In this world, only the Emperor and officials enjoyed the comfort of sons inheriting their fathers' positions—the other categories mostly trapped people and held back the development of their descendants.

The artisan households in particular—despite possessing fine skills, their status was extremely low. It was utterly unfair to them, and it chilled the hearts of the artisans.

In his future plans for revitalizing the Great Ming, craftsmen would play a major role. Therefore, Zhu Cilang decided to raise the status of craftsmen and improve their treatment, so that more people would be willing to learn a trade and contribute to the nation.

The current ironworks and the Jiangnan General Armory had already formed a complete industrial chain—from mining ore to smelting, then to transport and weapon forging. Looking at the blazing scene of activity around him, Zhu Cilang felt greatly excited. In the future, the army's armor and firearms would all be produced here.

Wu Zhong said, "Your Highness, when the factories were first established, they cost a considerable sum. The subsequent operations have been fairly steady—with the supply of coal and iron ore, the main expenses are forging, transport, and the wages of the craftsmen and the military farmland households."

Zhu Cilang said, "Don't skimp on that money. Throughout the entire Armory Bureau, the craftsmen are the core. They can not only forge weapons—more importantly, some of them can become scientific researchers!"

Though he didn't understand why scientific researchers were so important, Wu Zhong still firmly memorized the Crown Prince's words—he must not mistreat the craftsmen.

Wu Zhong said with a smile, "These miners and transport workers are all military farmland households under Taiping Prefecture. In the past, these people would go three days without two full meals. Now, working here, they not only get three meals a day with every meal filling, but also receive two taels of salary each month. Everyone is very satisfied and full of drive. They even worship this servant like a living Buddha!"

Zhu Cilang said, "The ironworks and Armory Bureau under your jurisdiction need miners to extract ore, laborers to transport it, and personnel for smelting. Coal transporters are needed, and turning coal into coke requires people too. Then refining wrought iron and shipping it to the Armory Bureau to forge all kinds of firearms and armor—all of this needs people. That's at least ten thousand or more, isn't it?"

Wu Zhong nodded and said, "What Your Highness says is correct. The total personnel required for these places comes to eighteen thousand six hundred and thirty-two people."

Zhu Cilang shot him an approving look and said, "These eighteen thousand-plus people each have families as well. In this way, just counting the people supported by you, Wu Zhong, there are over a hundred thousand. Now do you understand why they worship you like a Buddha?"

Wu Zhong was greatly astonished—he hadn't realized he was so important.

Zhu Cilang continued, "Not only that—the grain, cloth, salt, and other necessities these hundred-plus thousand people consume daily are all purchased from the local area. How many more people do they support in turn?"

"All trades are interconnected. The more prosperous the common people are, the more people they can support, and the better the Great Ming becomes!"

Not only Wu Zhong, but even Li Tingbiao and Xu Sheng accompanying the party, along with several officials of Taiping Prefecture, were all stunned. The Crown Prince's words truly showed unique insight.

"The Crown Prince truly is the reincarnation of the Purple Star Emperor, far beyond the reach of ordinary men!" an official flattered.

Zhu Cilang paid no attention to the expressions of those around him. Looking at the men and women toiling vigorously with smiles on their faces, he sighed inwardly and thought, "The demands of the Great Ming's people are not high at all—they're satisfied as long as they can eat their fill."

After staying in Taiping Prefecture for a few days, when Zhu Cilang crossed the river back to Fengyang Prefecture, he did not board the dragon boat that the local officials had newly built. Instead, he ordered several merchant ships to be requisitioned from the nearby Chizhou Prefecture and Chuzhou Prefecture.

In the end, Zhu Cilang did not board any of those merchant ships either, but instead switched at the last moment to a civilian troop transport vessel. What was horrifying was that during the river crossing, the newly built dragon boat and the several requisitioned merchant ships all leaked and sank into the river.

This incident caused a huge stir across the provinces of Jiangnan. Many were terrified, wondering who could want to harm the Crown Prince—and in such a deranged manner!

Zhu Cilang flew into a rage. He threw all the craftsmen who had built the dragon boat, along with more than a thousand people who had come into contact with the dragon boat and the merchant ships recently, into death row for rigorous interrogation. He also held the hundreds of officials from Chizhou Prefecture and Chuzhou Prefecture accountable, demoting every one of them three ranks!

Li Tingbiao was under enormous pressure—on one hand interrogating the thousand-plus prisoners in death row, and on the other strictly ordering the Jiangnan branch offices of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate the masterminds behind the plot. Whoever solved the case would be promoted three ranks.

Zhu Cilang even, in the name of the Crown Prince, offered a reward across Jiangnan of one hundred thousand taels of silver and ten thousand mu of fertile farmland. Anyone providing solid leads would be heavily rewarded. Officials who reported the masterminds would be promoted five ranks and granted noble titles!

When news reached the capital, the court was thrown into an uproar. Chongzhen was furious beyond measure—the Crown Prince had been attacked time and again, and the perpetrators were brazenly slapping the face of the imperial house. He could not tolerate it. Chongzhen immediately issued an edict to exterminate the nine clans of the plotters.

The court also dispatched an imperial envoy south to inspect the Southern Capital Region and handle the matter. The envoy was still halfway there when the Embroidered Uniform Guard had already uncovered a group of suspects. The plot involved far more than one or two people—a large number were implicated, including officials and gentry.

Zhu Cilang exterminated the nine clans of the principal offenders and executed several hundred accomplices. After beheading several thousand heads, Zhu Cilang forcibly seized the military garrison lands of Anqing Prefecture, Chizhou Prefecture, and Chuzhou Prefecture, and declared, "If your head is hard enough, and your family has enough heads to spare, then by all means seek revenge—this Prince does not fear you!"

After issuing his threats, Zhu Cilang made a tour of the various prefectures. The army accompanying him numbered a full ten thousand, and every time banners fluttered and the iron-armored host surged forth like a flood, sending chills down the spine.

The Crown Prince's domineering ways made the officials and gentry of every province in Jiangnan feel as though a massive stone weighed on their hearts, making it hard to breathe. In particular, the military farmland troops stationed in each prefecture hung over their heads like a sharp sword, filling them with unease.