The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 659

"To be honest, it's not that complicated. Lord Zhang, think about it carefully. If we really follow your quoted price, won't there be almost no profit left?"

Zhou Chu looked at Zhang Cong and said meaningfully.

"Wouldn't it be better if there were no profits? That way, we can save the court money."

Zhang Cong asked, somewhat puzzled.

Zhou Chu shook his head upon hearing this.

"Without profit, what will the people below do in order to make money? They will try every means to squeeze the workers' wages and squeeze out profits from other places. Projects without profit often end up with big problems."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Cong suddenly realized what was going on.

"Thank you for reminding me, sir. I understand now."

Zhang Cong stood up and bowed.

With Zhou Chu's guidance, Zhang Cong immediately understood where the problem lay. He returned to the Ministry of Revenue and had its officials draft a new cost estimate. However, this time the calculated cost was higher than before, about 80% of the first estimate. In this way, the project could be profitable without being too expensive.

Soon, the memorial was presented to Jiajing. Jiajing saw the cost he had anticipated and quickly approved it, sending the memorial to the Grand Secretariat for a draft resolution.

The process should not have been like this. The Ministry of Revenue should have sent the memorials to the Grand Secretariat first, which would then conduct a preliminary review. Once the Grand Secretariat approved them, they would be sent to Emperor Jiajing. The Grand Secretariat was essentially the emperor's secretariat, but during the reigns of previous emperors, the Grand Secretariat held considerable power and could even threaten the imperial authority.

This was not what Jiajing wanted to see, so for minor matters, the memorials first went through the Grand Secretariat. For example, the memorials for building the railway and the Zhenwu Hall were first sent to Jiajing, who would then make a decision before sending them to the Grand Secretariat.

After all, Jiajing now holds great power, and no one will raise any objections.

Besides the Zhenwu Hall, there was another project that Jiajing was secretly initiating. It was none other than the Ming Military Academy. Zhou Chu had mentioned the military academy to Jiajing more than a year ago, but Jiajing had focused his main efforts on the construction of the railway and the military campaign against the Yarkand Khanate.

There are priorities, and now that the Yarkand Khanate has been completely conquered, Jiajing finally had time to begin studying the military academy.

After all, the Ming Dynasty would be constantly waging war against foreign powers in the future, and there were too few capable generals available to the Ming Dynasty at present. Zhou Chu, Lin Lu, and Yun Jin were the only ones who were not up to par. Only Hu Zongxian and Zhao Zhenji, two students of Zhou Chu, caught Jiajing's eye.

If you calculate it this way, all the generals who are currently in the Ming Dynasty and can be considered capable, including Lin Lu and Lu Yunjin, were trained by Zhou Hengqi.

This made Jiajing realize Zhou Chu's ability to train military generals, so he thought about putting the military academy on the agenda. According to Zhou Chu, after the military academy was established, Jiajing would personally serve as the dean, so as to ensure the absolute loyalty of the generals trained to Jiajing.

This suggestion was very much to Jiajing's liking. He was originally worried that these generals were trained by Zhou Chu or his students and would follow Zhou Chu's lead in the future. If he became the dean and occasionally participated in the teaching, and since he was the emperor, the generals he trained in the future would definitely be extremely loyal to him.

The Jiajing Emperor did not intend to establish the Military Academy through the Grand Secretariat and the Ministry of Revenue. If the establishment of the Military Academy were to be discussed in the court, there would be many problems. It is likely that civil and military officials, and even the original military generals, would strongly oppose it. After all, once Zhou Hengqi was allowed to teach at the Military Academy, his position as the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard would be rock-solid. Once the students of the Military Academy grew up, no one would be able to shake Zhou Chu's position, which was something that others could not tolerate.