Song Chu: Dad, if you don't work hard, how can I just lie down and relax?

Chapter 62 is all for Zhao Guangmei

While Wang Lu was reading in his study, a servant announced: "My lord, the Third Prince has arrived with his luggage and palace maids. He has been invited in and is in the front hall. The Dowager is personally greeting him and arranging for people to move his luggage. Young Master Li's men are also helping out."

How much luggage did he bring?

There were at least two large carts.

Upon hearing this, Wang Lu couldn't help but laugh and scold, "So he's planning to stay for a long time? Has he paid for his food? Qing'er, come with me."

"Me? Is this appropriate?" The newcomer, Qing'er, asked timidly.

"He's my own brother, what's inappropriate about that? It's a good opportunity to introduce you to him."

Qing'er is different from Xiao Tao; she is a personal maid, and once he matures, she will definitely be taken as a concubine.

Upon arriving at the front hall, they found Zhao Guangmei and Li Shoujie already chatting. Zhao Guangmei knew Li Shoujie's identity very well, but pretended not to. When she saw Wang Lu arrive, she even smiled and asked him, "Second brother, is this your friend?"

"Yes, it's a big boss from Hedong who sold me a batch of alum. These days, alum isn't easy to get. I might continue to cooperate with him and buy things like coal from him in the future."

"You brought a lot of stuff. How long will you be staying? Should I charge you for food?"

Wang Lu was just joking, but Zhao Guangmei blushed and looked ashamed when she heard it.

Wang Lu asked in surprise, "What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

Zhao Guangmei, somewhat embarrassed, took out Zhao Kuangyin's edict and gave it to Wang Lu: "This is my elder brother's will."

Wang Lu: "An imperial edict? You just show it to me like this? Shouldn't I set up an altar or something to receive the edict first?"

"There's no one else here, and my elder brother is quite casual about things. This edict doesn't seem to have been signed by the Secretariat. Just treat it as a secret edict."

"Return the secret edict."

Wang Lu opened it and saw that it asked Zhao Guangmei to invest 10,000 strings of cash in the iron smelting workshop that he and his son had just started. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at him: "Is that all?"

Zhao Guangmei nodded and said, "This matter is indeed a bit... difficult to talk about. We are brothers, and it would be inappropriate for me to take it from you by trickery or force. If you feel that 10,000 strings of cash is not enough, you can name a number, and I will discuss it with my elder brother."

"No need for that. Even if the Emperor hadn't issued this decree, I was planning to give you half of the workshop anyway. I didn't expect that your family would actually give you money for your investment."

"what?"

Wang Lu rolled his eyes at him: "I'm smelting iron, brother. Is this something that can be touched in a folk workshop? If it weren't for you, why would my son and I be doing this?"

"What can't make money? If we really wanted to, we could make some miracle pills. Making money has never been a problem for us."

"The reason I started doing this after I stopped making bricks and tiles is threefold: first, it's a waste to leave so many furnaces empty; second, it's to keep the residents of Tongjifang busy; and third, it's also to give you something to do."

Actually, the main point is the third one. To be honest, this ironworks was opened for Zhao Guangmei.

Wang Lu wanted to change Zhao Guangmei's historical fate as much as possible, so he naturally had to make him useful. Making him have a relationship with Zhao Guangyi was useless; that beast was inhuman and would even kill his own son.

But why could he tolerate Zhao Pu, with whom he had fought to the death? Because Zhao Pu was useful to him, and he was powerful, so Zhao Guangyi was wary of him.

However, it was impossible for Zhao Guangmei to become an official and control political resources because he was too young. He was not even thirty years old when Zhao Kuangyin died, so it was unrealistic for him to compete with Zhao Guangyi for political power.

Then let him make some money, and distribute as much of it as possible to the soldiers. That way, it will be unlikely that he can compete with Zhao Guangyi for the throne, but at least it will make Zhao Guangyi more hesitant when he wants to take action against him.

Actually, this is the same thing as the father and son opening a brick and tile workshop to help Han Tong win over the army. Since they can change the fate of Han Tong's entire family being wiped out by opening a brick and tile factory, maybe they can also save Zhao Guangmei through similar means?

The so-called three strategies for a prosperous era proposed by Wang Lu, his suggestions, and even his guidance to engage in military and business activities were all for this purpose, and ultimately all for the purpose of saving Zhao Guangmei's life.

Moreover, Wang Lu had to help Zhao Guangmei make money and completely abandon the Taizong Dynasty. At least half of the burden of holding the first rank of officialdom also fell on Wang Jun's shoulders. For this reason, he begged Wang Jun for two whole days before he agreed to build the steel plant.

"How about the share distribution? How about you get 60% and I get 40%?" Wang Lu asked.

"Okay, you've already made me feel really bad."

"Why should you be embarrassed to me? You should be embarrassed to the Second King."

"Second brother? Why?"

"You're so stupid. My father is the Second King's confidant, so isn't our family's workshop the Second King's workshop? He can do a lot of things with this workshop, and to some extent, the money our family earns is equivalent to the money he earns."

The workshop's development to where it is today is truly inseparable from the Second King's help. Now that you've invested, isn't that tantamount to squeezing the Second King out? You're not just robbing my father and me of our factory, you're robbing the Second King's factory!"

Wang Lu was subtly reminding Zhao Guangmei to be mindful of the potential conflict of interest between him and Zhao Guangyi, but Zhao Guangmei completely missed the point, dismissively waving her hand and saying, "As long as you don't blame me, what difference is there between mine and my second brother's factory?"

Wang Lu: "The difference is quite significant. Currently, most of the people connected to my maternal grandfather in that factory have gone to Luoyang with Han Wei, but the Second Prince has placed quite a few people connected to him, at least one or two hundred."

If you're just doing this for fun, or to have something to do, then you can keep all these people. But if you want to do it properly, if you really want to reward the army on behalf of the government, then your first task as the major shareholder is to kick out all these cronies.

Zhao Guangmei was taken aback.

"Whether you kick me or not is up to you. From now on, I'm working for you. Do your business well, or offend your second brother. The choice is yours."

Zhao Guangmei laughed and said, "What kind of talk is that? It makes my second brother sound like he's petty. Does he think he'll hold a grudge against me just because I cleaned up a few of the people he planted? He's my own second brother. We're brothers, there's no need for such formalities. Don't worry, I'll handle this."

As she spoke, Zhao Guangmei patted her chest loudly.

This naiveté drew a sidelong glance from Li Shoujie, who raised an eyebrow.

Wang Lu pursed his lips but didn't say anything: "There's no time like the present, so let's do it today. I'll take you to see that new factory."

"You, as the new boss, go and establish your authority, fire those people. And Brother Li, you come too. You're a major supplier to the factory, right? Besides, didn't you want to learn how to smelt iron from coal? I'll show you."

Then he said to Qing'er, "Go to my father's room and find my stepmother's maid, Xiaolian. Tell her to go to the Palace Guard to find my father and ask the Second King for half a day off. Have her come and explain things to the Third King and Brother Li. I'm not very good at technical things; he knows more about them."