Honghui is reborn in Legend of Zhen Huan, I will protect my mother

Yinzhen was stunned at first, and then continued: "Those inlaid with gold, silver, and jade are slightly more expensive. Ordinary ones are indeed no more than ten taels, or even lower." Compared with its selling price, the cost is not worth mentioning at all!

Honghui was not too shocked by this, as almost everyone could afford a self-ringing clock in later generations, which showed that the cost was not that high. He was shocked by Uncle Jiu's talent, who had created a self-ringing clock from scratch in just two years!

Everyone underestimates Uncle Nine!

You have to know that the clock making shop at that time could only make pocket watches and repair damaged self-ringing clocks. The craftsmen of the Qing Dynasty did not have the ability to make self-ringing clocks.

——The core technology of the self-ringing clock was suppressed by Western missionaries. All the self-ringing clocks in the Qing Dynasty came from the West!

"Great! If the Emperor knew about this, he would be so happy. This is a great achievement. When the Qing Dynasty's self-ringing clock is released, let's see how arrogant those Westerners will be."

Yinzhen said with deep feeling: "That's right! Western self-ringing clocks cost thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of silver. Who can afford it except the rich and powerful? Just like the soap incident, the so-called tribute and treasures of the Westerners turned out to be a joke in the end!"

After more than a year, the soap technology was finally leaked. Nowadays, there are many soap workshops among the people, and the price of soap has been low enough that ordinary people can buy one or two pieces as a dowry for their daughters. Under such circumstances, Westerners had no choice but to withdraw their tribute in shame.

If a piece of soap which costs only a few dozen cents is used as a tribute, it would be a disgrace to the Emperor!

Thinking of this, Yinzhen sneered: "The sea merchants are trying their best to buy the soaps from our Qing Dynasty and then take them back to sell. I heard that the cost and price of their soaps are much higher than those of our Qing Dynasty!" Isn't this a joke?

Honghui echoed, "It's not easy to earn money from Westerners. The tea, porcelain and silk of the Qing Dynasty are not as expensive as their so-called tribute. How dare they ask for such a high price! In my opinion, Westerners don't take the Qing Dynasty seriously!"

"You're right! Westerners have always been bold and presumptuous, and missionaries never tell the truth. They talk about Christianity and Catholicism all the time. When you ask about the conditions in their countries and how Western things are made, they all evade the question and become like a gourd with a sawed mouth. What? Am I so easy to fool?" Yinzhen gritted his teeth and looked angrily.

You are indeed easy to deceive! Honghui secretly complained. But you can't say this in front of me!

"Uncle Jiu has always been very clear-sighted. How could the little plots of Westerners be hidden from your eyes? Unfortunately, the world cannot see the wolfish ambitions of Westerners... My nephew recently heard that England promulgated a "Navigation Act" several decades ago. The Queen of England encouraged her countrymen to plunder at sea. I wonder if Uncle Jiu knows about this?"

Yinzhen shook his head and asked in confusion: "Maritime plunder? Where did you hear that? The missionaries never mentioned such a thing."

"My nephew bought a batch of Western books a few days ago, and there were a few letters in the books. One of the letters mentioned the Navigation Act. I will show it to you when I return home. But the letter is with my father now, and the content of the letter is a bit unpleasant to hear. Please don't take it to heart after reading it."

This is somewhat true. After all, he specifically kept an eye on those missionaries, using the excuse that he was quite interested in Western scientific knowledge, and as a result, he took advantage of the opportunity.

"It's okay. Go on. What did the letter say?"

Honghui looked hesitant and said hesitantly: "The letter said that my Qing Dynasty is full of gold and silver, and it is very easy to deceive..."

"What? Did they really say that?" Yinzhen's hair stood on end with anger clearly visible on his face.

"It is absolutely true! But the letter only mentioned it briefly, without going into too much detail. I don't know if I can take it seriously. My father also said that the letter might just be nonsense. After all, he has never seen a missionary mention such a thing! Uncle Jiu, you have always been very knowledgeable about Western affairs, so I thought of asking you this time."

"Although I have never heard of this, the missionaries never tell the truth. Maybe this is true. Don't worry, I will ask someone to check it out later..."

Honghui hurriedly shook his head and declined politely: "No, no, my father has already sent people to investigate. It's just that my nephew is anxious, so I asked you about this matter. I dare not trouble Uncle Jiu to do this matter. You just take a good rest. My father will take care of everything!"

In fact, what Ama said was: "This is a different time. Now is a time of trouble. It is not appropriate for the government to take any action. Wait until the storm calms down, and then ask the people to investigate."

But this did not stop him from leaking the secret to Uncle Jiu. He even wanted to use Uncle Jiu's help to investigate further!

It is better to provoke the enemy than to persuade him, and he guessed Yinzhen's psychology correctly.

"Fourth brother investigates his own affairs, and I investigate mine. We have nothing to do with each other! Tsk! With Fourth brother's pedantic personality, can his subordinates get close to missionaries? It's different for me. My subordinates have more dealings with missionaries and sea merchants, and they won't easily alert the enemy. Am I not more suitable than him?"

"But……"

"No buts. Don't tell Fourth Brother. Wait until I find out the truth, and then I'll tell him!" His hatred for Fourth Brother gradually disappeared, but he was very happy to see Fourth Brother's decadent and frustrated look. That picture was very appetizing to watch.

However, thinking of his interactions with Honghui in recent years and the job of making honeycomb coal, Yinzhen hesitantly said, "Honghui, tell your fourth brother to be more at peace!" The eighth brother and the eldest brother are planning to take action against the second brother, the crown prince.

In fact, Big Brother didn’t explain it very clearly in front of him. It was his Tenth Brother who analyzed the matter to him!

Although Yinzhen could understand that Bage did not want to alert the enemy, and also wanted to bring down the prince, he always felt an indescribable discomfort in his heart, for Bage and for himself.

Did the starling not trust him as much as before? Although the starling looked the same as usual, he felt that the starling had changed and had become defensive towards him.

——He never needed to have a messenger sent when he went to Bage's study before, but in the past year or so, he needed a messenger every time. Moreover, half of the various official documents and letters that used to fill the bookshelf in Bage's study were gone at some point, and the remaining half seemed to have hardly been added to.

Without thinking too much about it, Yinzhen never told anyone about it, even to his closest tenth brother, he kept his mouth shut.

How do people get along with each other? Only the parties involved know best!