Zhu Di: My fourth son is a great emperor of all time?

Chapter 100 What kind of chicken is an excavator!

After hearing Tianmu's explanation, Zhu Di was furious, wishing his fourth son was not in front of him!

"I shouldn't have let that brat get out of here! I'm going to kill him!"

"Go, go tie up the little brat for me!"

"Tie them up tightly!"

Zhu Di was furious, and Gou'er dared not disobey, but still cautiously asked, "Your Majesty, should we tie him up at the Prince Qi's residence, or after he enters the palace?"

"Of course, we'll rescue them from the Prince Qi's residence..."

Zhu Di stopped halfway through his sentence.

"Fine, come back, let me finish reading this part first."

He wasn't thinking about Zhu Gaoshuo's reputation, but rather why Zhu Gaoshuo did what he did.

The state of Xunzhou under Zhu Gaoshuo's rule is such that every single thing Zhu Di thought was a joke or a game turned out to be a move by Zhu Gaoshuo.

Zhu Di is now outside the game, yet he still cannot fathom its direction.

Why was Zhu Gaoshuo so absurd?
He would never do anything frivolous.

Because Zhu Di knew that Zhu Gaoshuo had not married for so many years and had always been unrestrained and free, yet he had never had a reputation for being frivolous with women.

Even though he sometimes hangs out with some disreputable actors, he never gets involved with women.

So much so that someone once reported to Zhu Di, asking if the fourth prince had homosexual tendencies.

Enraged, Zhu Di dragged Zhu Gaoshuo over and gave him a good scolding.

He said that women were boring and not as dashing as his grandmother, who fought alongside his grandfather to build the empire.

For this reason, Zhu Di even asked him if he felt he wanted to be like his father and create a new empire.

Zhu Gaoshuo's answer at the time was, "I am not my grandfather, therefore my future wife will definitely not be my grandmother. But I yearn for it and will certainly learn from the loving relationship between my grandfather and grandmother."

His words were so impeccable that Zhu Di couldn't do anything about it, but he genuinely believed that the young man wouldn't act recklessly when it came to women.

What was the purpose of this incident in Xunzhou?
[My dear viewers are surely smarter than I am; you know that in our Great Ming Dynasty, women and men had different statuses—that was a tradition since ancient times.]

Why did such a big change occur when Prince Qi was enfeoffed in Xunzhou?

[This matter is actually recorded. It wasn't that Prince Qi had any innovative ideas; it all boils down to one word: poverty.]

You'll surely be surprised—how could such a wealthy place like Xunzhou be poor? The Xinghua Tower is already three stories high!

Zhu Di nodded in agreement.

Can we ever be poorer than when we were fighting alongside our father to build our empire?

How could someone be poor when their father couldn't even afford a burial plot?

Our Zhu family got its reputation from poverty!
They weren't so poor that they forced women to work as waitresses in front of the public!
What you see is Xunzhou, which has been governed by Prince Qi and has developed into a well-established system.

What people don't know is that when Prince Qi first arrived in Xunzhou, he was completely penniless!

[To the point where, if a family can afford to own one set of clothes to wear out in public, they're considered wealthy!]

Zhu Di couldn't help but recall his childhood home.

It wasn't just Xunzhou; in those turbulent times, whose family wasn't like that? If it weren't for our father leading his brothers to conquer the world, we wouldn't have the prosperous life we ​​have now!

Therefore, the first thing our Prince Qi did was to mobilize everyone to get to work!

When Prince Qi arrived in Xunzhou, he discovered that the labor force was extremely scarce. Xunzhou was already less densely populated than the inland areas; it was sparsely populated, barren, and plagued by miasma!

[With limited medical resources, families often had to wait to die at home when someone fell ill. It was common for only eight out of ten children to survive.] [In such circumstances where even survival was difficult, Prince Qi advocated for work, regardless of gender. Work meant food, and food meant strength to work. This was a virtuous cycle.]

Zhu Di was speechless.

Work, eat. It's that simple.

Is the fourth brother's idea correct? Yes.

But I still feel it's not right!

Women can do any work they are capable of. That was our pioneering period. Men and women were all busy building Xunzhou.

Later, as Xunzhou was gradually developed, large restaurants like Xinghualou emerged, and the division of labor between men and women continued; everyone did their best in whatever they could.

In the words of the Middle Ancestor, before gods and Buddhas, there is no difference between men and women. Therefore, before ordinary people, both men and women should strive to do their best.

[Dear viewers, think about it, this adds at least half the workforce.]

What is labor? It's construction, it's production, it's what makes Xunzhou strong!

Now that we've seen Xinghua Tower, let's see where Xu Dadao stays tonight.

As the camera shifts, the chef from before has changed into a different set of clothes, which look incredibly soft, and is now sleeping on a spacious bed.

The place looked extremely luxurious, and Zhu Di even suspected that the fourth prince had given up his own palace.

This is the famous Qiwang Hotel in Xunzhou. It was originally built by Emperor Zhongzu to entertain officials.

[Xunzhou has trade relations with officials from various places, and they all stay here when they come.]

Later, when more upscale hotels were built, this place became a venue for publicly receiving guests.

For just one string of cash, one can enjoy such a comfortable living environment.

Only one string of cash?
Zhu Di suspected he had misheard.

Is one string of cash a small amount?
One string of cash could buy so much rice, flour, and oil!

This cook actually spent a string of cash to ask for lodging?

Shouldn't lodging be something done at inns?

In Xunzhou, everyone can stay outside their home. However, visitors to Xunzhou need to register before checking in.

The construction of the Qiwang Hotel is also a microcosm of Xunzhou's development.

The camera then shifts to the interior structure of the Qiwang Hotel.

It can be seen that this is also a three-story building, and even the three staggered buildings are connected by a corridor structure.

The three buildings encircle a courtyard, which has a bit of the Jiangnan (southern China) feel to it.

"It seems that the fourth brother is still thinking about home."

There was a garden in the Prince Qi's mansion that was very similar to the one in the mansion, which pleased Zhu Di greatly.

[In the early stages of construction, Prince Qi directed craftsmen to excavate the foundation. During this process, because manual labor was too slow, Prince Qi invented an excavator.]

Um? what?
This was the earliest excavator, cleverly utilizing a lever structure to combine a steel body with sophisticated control levers. Although it couldn't compare to the refined and advanced excavators of today, it greatly improved production efficiency at the time.

Before Zhu Di was a steel beast with an unimaginable single arm that could extend and retract!

However, upon closer inspection, this steel beast is not a living creature, but rather controlled by a human.

And sitting in the middle was also a woman!
"The woman from Xunzhou has such great strength that she can control such a ferocious beast!"

(End of this chapter)