Professional Ethics of a Concubine

Chapter 233 Turning waste into treasure

The Sixth Prince did not immediately answer the Emperor whether he could do it or not. Instead, he turned to ask Ye Qingzhi and asked her to describe the item she wanted more clearly.

Ye Qingzhi told him about her impressions of gunpowder, rockets, caltrop cannons and other firearms.

She herself actually knew only a little about it, but at least she could draw now, so she drew some of the muskets, cannons, fireballs, rockets, as well as more modern pistols and grenades that she had seen in movies and TV shows.

"It's just for reference. There are discrepancies between my drawings. I hope I won't lead you astray."

Ye Qingzhi handed the drawings to the Sixth Prince and said unconfidently.

The Sixth Prince nodded, looked at it for a while, and then said to the Emperor,

"Father, I have been researching for a while and have no problem making powerful firecrackers, fireballs, and rockets. The remaining artillery will take more time and manpower."

"Okay, okay!" The emperor nodded with satisfaction, looking at the Sixth Prince with a fatherly look in his eyes, and expressed his full support.

"Just tell me what you want. We can provide you with money, manpower, items, and places. You just need to do your research carefully."

"Thank you, father." The Sixth Prince kowtowed and thanked him, and then said, "I would like to ask Master Ye for some help. I feel she knows a lot."

"I also only have a limited understanding." Ye Qingzhi spoke the truth, but to others it sounded like she was being modest, but she did not shirk responsibility.

"I will stay with the Sixth Prince for a while. I hope what I know can be of help to him."

"Teacher, please accept my bow." The Sixth Prince bowed respectfully towards Ye Qingzhi, performing the ceremony of becoming a disciple.

This means I want to take her as my teacher.

Xie Jin glanced at the Sixth Prince and thought that he was not stupid. He had good eyesight and knew how to take the initiative to recognize a master.

He is still my tutor.

Ye Qingzhi had already decided to give up and simply accepted this apprentice.

After today, her title as the Crown Prince's teacher, Master Ye, would be confirmed, and she would no longer have another Sixth Prince as her apprentice.

Although she had returned 80% of the math, physics and chemistry knowledge she had learned in modern times to school, she could still fool around with the remaining 20%.

With her half-baked level, she is lucky to be leading a genius in mathematics, physics and chemistry.

After she has taught all that can be taught, the Sixth Prince will become an apprentice and the irreplaceable pillar of the Great Zhao. Then she will have one more person to take care of her in her old age.

-

Although Ye Qingzhi is lazy and slack in daily life, once something happens, she will really get involved and her attitude towards work is very aggressive.

Because she wanted to get things done in the shortest time and with the highest efficiency so that she could continue lying down.

Therefore, as soon as the Sixth Prince kowtowed and became his disciple, Ye Qingzhi took up her post. She was required to stay at the Sixth Prince's residence to get to know him in all aspects and start with a specific test.

Although the emperor was very interested in accompanying the examinee, he had other government affairs to attend to, so he left first.

Before leaving, the emperor instructed Ye Qingzhi to summarize the entire process and results of the baseline test in detail and report to him.

Ye Qingzhi naturally agreed.

Crown Princess Zhang Jingyi also left. Firstly, she had no interest, and secondly, she still had palace affairs to deal with.

De Zhaoyi also took Prince Duan away. If they stayed, they would be listening to nonsense and seeing the happy face of Concubine Rou, which was too depressing.

It doesn't matter if I don't join in the fun!

In fact, Prince Duan wanted to stay. Although he didn't understand what his sixth brother had done, he felt that his sixth brother would be a golden thigh in the future and he wanted to hug him.

Alas, my mother is old, has a bad temper, and her mind is not clear anymore. She might betray her son from time to time.

How could he succeed if he didn't find a few more golden legs to hold on to?

-

"Hey, Your Highness, aren't you leaving?" Ye Qingzhi asked him with a smile when she saw that the prince was still there.

"There's nothing important to do." Xie Jin said with a smile, "I feel like there's a big treasure hidden here, Sixth Brother. I'll stay and see how you dig for it."

Ye Qingzhi smiled when she heard this, winked at Xie Jin, and said mischievously, "Then I will dig a treasure for Your Highness right now, Your Highness, watch."

"I'll wait and see." Xie Jin said with a smile.

Ye Qingzhi turned around and instructed Ruyi beside her to take some eunuchs and palace maids to pick flowers immediately and bring back more petals.

After giving Ruyi the instructions, she instructed another eunuch to take some people to bring over a few jars of wine.

Finally, Ye Qingzhi looked at the Sixth Prince and said to him with a smile,

"Let's put the gunpowder issue aside for now. It's not suitable to be made in the palace. It's too dangerous. Let's find a suitable place tomorrow to do it.

You just said you know how to distill. Do you have the equipment to distill? Can you use distillation to make the flower dew into a purer dew?"

The Sixth Prince nodded and asked with some disappointment, "Is it such a simple thing?"

"For you, such a simple thing can earn a lot of money for the royal family. This is the most straightforward way to prove your value."

Ye Qingzhi smiled and said to the Sixth Prince,

"If what we do can be converted into money, the emperor will be happy, and he will grant you a steady supply of money and manpower to do other research you like.

This is the necessary workaround.”

"Xiao Liu, remember this carefully. What Master Ye said is all true and insightful. It is the way for you to survive in the future. Do you understand?"

Concubine Rou immediately gave the Sixth Prince instructions.

Her admiration and gratitude towards Ye Qingzhi now were like a surging river, endless. She felt that everything Ye Qingzhi said was worth recording.

"I will definitely write down what Master says." The Sixth Prince said with a blank expression, but very seriously.

Ye Qingzhi looked at his cool, handsome and well-behaved appearance and wanted to touch his head.

Ye Qingzhi already felt that this disciple was really nice.

Who wouldn’t like a cool, handsome young man who is also a genius academic master?

Even if I don't take care of her in her old age, she would be happy to take care of her.

"You make hydrosols to sell to other countries like sugar?" Xie Jin asked Ye Qingzhi.

"Yes, but it needs to be packaged before it can be sold. In addition, after the hydrosol is blended, it can also be added to soap to make soap, which will be more popular and the price can be raised."

Ye Qingzhi explained.

"Then what are you going to do with the wine you want?" Xie Jin asked again.

"Use distillation to purify the existing wine and increase the alcohol concentration to make it strong liquor. The people of Dayan will probably like it." Ye Qingzhi said.

"While the envoys from Dayan are here, let's make more strong liquor for them to taste. If we can conquer them, we can sign a long-term sales contract with them. We can earn money from them and also exchange the strong liquor for their specialties."

Hearing this, Xie Jin smiled and said, "This is indeed a great treasure."

-

When the picked petals arrived, a dozen palace maids and eunuchs were dispatched and started to work under Ye Qingzhi's command.

Wash the petals and then boil them to make floral dew, which is then purified by the Sixth Prince using a distiller.

While waiting for the flower dew, Ye Qingzhi took the Sixth Prince to do a survey, to take a look at all the "unproductive" things he had done in the past, and then to search for any treasures.

Xie Jin also followed and was particularly interested in this treasure hunting activity, and they actually found a lot of useful things.

For example, the arrows designed by the Sixth Prince himself were made of wood, not iron, and had insufficient penetrating power. However, after Xie Jin tried them, he judged that the arrows' accuracy and flight distance were superior to those currently used in the army.

If it can be transformed into iron arrows and used in the army, it will undoubtedly improve the army's combat capability.

There are also some other small bits and pieces that can be more or less useful.

The Sixth Prince and Concubine Rou followed on the side, and they were both silent as they watched the Crown Prince and Master Ye happily picking up scraps from the "garbage dump".

"Son, if I were a mentor, I would realize that what you do is very useful and I would not let you be buried for so many years." Concubine Rou sighed.

She has a poor brain and vision, and has no idea how capable her son is.

"Don't be sad, mother. The queen wanted to kill her son because you discovered that these scraps could be turned into treasures."

The Sixth Prince spoke expressionlessly.

Concubine Rou was stunned for a moment and thought that what her son said was right.

The Queen is not a tolerant person. Master Ye is right.

Because the prince can tolerate his brothers, his son can have a chance to turn things around.

Ye Qingzhi and the Crown Prince cleared out all the "junk" from the Sixth Prince's place, and then drove the Sixth Prince to work.

After the pure dew and purified liquor were prepared, Ye Qingzhi asked the Sixth Prince to rest first, and then she and the Crown Prince left.

Part of the pure water and liquor was sent to the emperor, and his uses and the results of the investigation were explained.

When the emperor learned the result, he was relieved but also annoyed.

Alas, his sons were all good kids, but they were almost spoiled.

The emperor was thankful again that he had recognized Xie Jin so early.

Without a good son like him, this family would have fallen apart.

The emperor couldn't help but think of the prince's biological mother. He wondered if he had a big son, could he lure the empress over?

To make this family more complete?

-

The other part of the pure water and liquor was sent to the royal estate and handed over to Prince Duan and the third prince Yuchi Yongning, so that they could use it when entertaining the seventh prince of Dayan tomorrow.

"This kind of good stuff can't just be given to the people of Dayan. I'll reserve some for our Gulan country and send them to my mother."

Before Yuchi Yongning officially took up his post, he had already learned how to abuse his power for personal gain and grab benefits for himself.